Talk:Firearms/@comment-27281793-20151130172610/@comment-142.113.229.148-20151130182249
Drum magazines, even modern ones, are far less reliable when it comes to feeding rounds as compared to more conventional double-stack magazines. The ones compatible with AR-15 type rifles weigh a great deal as well, just under five pounds, which adds a pretty good deal of weight to a rifle that already weighs a little over six pounds. A couple of the other devices you mentioned would put this rifle tipping the scales at about 13 or 14 pounds in total. They're not exactly comfortable to hump around at that weight; you're looking at the equivalent of an unloaded SAW at that point. More on the magazine, those things are about bulky as hell in your pack; that's about the only place you can carry them effectively. They're so oddly-shaped and take up so much prime workspace on a tactical vest as to be basically impossible to carry practically. They also take a fairly ridiculous amount of time to top off with loose ammunition once they're expended, which is a concern if you've fired your magazines dry and are trying to ready them back up for immediate action quickly. They're an even larger concern for handguns; while they were tossed around a few times during both World Wars, we eventually figured out that handguns don't work that well as a primary service weapon, and that it was pretty wasteful to try to turn them into one, because giving them larger magazines doesn't affect their other shortcomings, those being a short sight radius and a very limited effective range. The drum magazine you mentioned would render the sidearm basically impossible to holster or carry effectively, and even more difficult to draw and present on a target at close range with any degree of speed. You'd also be looking at a lot of overshoot on the draw motion, cuz you'd be fighting a ridiculous amount of momentum at that point, with the loaded drum magazine weighing more than the handgun itself in this particular case. At that point, you're defeating the entire purpose of a handgun, something that could be drawn and used effectively to defend yourself at close range in the event your primary weapon catastrophically fails in a way immediate action can't remedy. The "zoomable scope" would be less than useless on a handgun; I'm not sure what video game you've been playing that would imply a Glock semiautomatic is useful or desirable for engaging targets at distances that would necessitate a variable magnification scope, but they're not. This accessory would, if it were installed (and with great difficulty), interfere with holstering and drawing th weapon as well. About the best you can do for small semi-automatics are red dot sights installed on the slide, tapped over where the rear sights would normally be located. Not a common accessory on handguns for the most part, but they've been gaining ground with tactical shooters recently. It should also be noted that Glock handguns, due to their design (and depending on year of manufacture), can require a considerable deal of proprietary parts or significant aftermarket gunsmithing to make it possible or practical to install accessories of any kind. Earlier models are indicative of the mindset of the era of shooting establishment they were designed in, with an eye towards a one-model-fits-everything, no-modifications-needed-or-wanted notion. You see a similar design paradigm in a number of successful and experimental rifles of the era, with integrated optics that are often more trouble (and weight) than they're worth. With regards to the M202 FLASH, you're looking at a bulky, rectangular system that weighs over 25 pounds and that was designed to replace flamethrowers for attacking pillboxes and bunkers. While it would be effective on civilian targets, so would more conventional means of engagement. More practical concerns would focus around the difficulty of acquiring a working model in the first place, as the majority were take out of operational deployment three and a half decades ago. Finding sufficient ordnance to reload and re-use the weapon would be problematic as well, not to mention difficult in the extreme for a single person to carry; M202 series weapons were designed for use by multiple individuals, with one preparing and firing the weapon, and another designating targets and assisting with loading and carrying munitions.